Acquiring Human Capital through the Generations by Migration

Citation

Smith JP & Delaney L (2015) Acquiring Human Capital through the Generations by Migration. Journal of Human Capital, 9 (4), pp. 564-600. https://doi.org/10.1086/683544

Abstract
This paper focuses on the role of migration to the United States from a set of important European sending countries as a device for improving the human capital of the children and grandchildren of migrants as measured by their education. We derive a new and conceptually more appropriate measure of the generational gains in schooling attributable to migration by taking into account the correct counterfactual: the generational education gains that would have taken place if these migrants had remained in their sending countries. We find that the two European sending countries that gained the most in terms of their descendants’ human capital were Italy and Poland.

Journal
Journal of Human Capital: Volume 9, Issue 4